Rainbow Clones?
by Frost Mausoleum
Summary: When Naruto sneezes while doing the shadow clone jutsu and knocks himself unconscious, team 7 just think he's being his normal foolish self. But the jutsu has misfired, and Naruto has made real duplicates as opposed to clones...each with a different aspect of his personality.
1. Chapter 1

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Kakashi has to admit, he loves seeing the enemies face when they are suddenly surrounded by solid Naruto clones. One is definitely enough, but one hundred?

"You'll pay for that!" various clones yell, all rushing forwards at once. Several are destroyed just by the stampede. Kakashi sighs a little. He'll have to talk to Naruto about that after the battle. He does has a lot of chakra, but there's no point in wasting it. Meanwhile, the clones are pounding the bandit down into the ground.

"Na-ru-to! Uzumaki barrage!" In the fray, the real Naruto is pushed into the river. He quickly surfaces, spurting out water like a fish. He's drenched, and his hair falls flat upon his head instead of spiking up like it normally does.

"Hey!" he yells. "Watch it, will ya?" The shadow clones, after some mass high-fiving, poof out of existence. Naruto drags himself onto the bank and shakes his head, water flying out of his hair. "Stupid clones..." he grumbles.

"Good job, Naruto," Kakashi praises, walking forwards to look at the battered bandit. The man is completely still, but not dead. He's going to be sore for a while, though. Kakashi hoists the man up none too gently and slings him over his back. "Let's get him back to his village, and then it's mission complete."

"Well done, dobe," Sasuke smirks as Naruto walks past him, dripping. "Only an idiot like you could get knocked into the water by his own shadow clones."

"Shut up!" Naruto yells. "At least I didn't get knocked unconscious by a _bandit_! He didn't even have ninja training, Sasuke-teme!" Sasuke clenches his fist and practically growls at Naruto.

"Who says we get some ramen when we get back to Konoha, hey, Naruto?" Kakashi intervenes, eager to stop the squabble before they end up bashing each other.

"Alright!" Naruto yells. "You're treating us, right, sensei?"

"What?! No, I-"

"Thanks, sensei," Sakura says. "We really feel like a team when you treat us to lunch."

Sasuke watches coldly as Kakashi sighs in exasperation. 'I will surpass you, Naruto. There's no way I'm going to be beaten by a dead last.'

-/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/ \-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\/\-/-\/-\/\-/\-/-\/

"Ah - Ahchoo!"

The next day, Team 7 are on a D-rank mission. An unsurprisingly mind-numbingly dull one. They're picking weeds - _picking weeds! _- for some farmer. "Why can't he farm his only stupid fields?" Naruto complains between sneezes. "It's his job! A great ninja like me shouldn't have to be doing stupid chores like this!"

"Just think of it as training," Kakashi says from where he's perched on the fence, his copy of Icha Icha Paradise open in his hand. "A ninja is one who endures."

"Easy for you to say," Sakura shoots back. "You're not doing anything!" Behind her, Naruto sniffs loudly. She turns around and whacks him on the head. "Don't be so disgusting!" He falls to the floor, clutching his head dramatically. "I wish there was some way to speed this up, though. Naruto's actually right for once."

"I know! Shadow clones will get this done twice as fast!" Naruto says from where he's sitting on the floor, his hand already forming the clone hand seal. "Ka-HACHOO! bunshin no jutsu!" There's a huge cloud of smoke, and Sakura waves her hand in front of her face frantically, coughing.

"Watch it, you idiot!" She's met with silence. "Naruto?" Once the smoke clears, she sees his body lying on the floor."Naruto? Are you okay?"

By this point, Kakashi has gotten up from the fence post and is crouched by Naruto's side. He checks his vitals, and is relieved to see that they're fine. "His sneeze must have interfered with the jutsu somehow. He's knocked himself unconscious." 'Only you could do this, Naruto,' he thinks, exasperated.

"Like you really care," says a voice. It's coming from behind them, but they were sure that they were the only ones around. They're on guard instantly, hands poised to grab their kunai. But once they see the person talking, they freeze. He looks just like their blonde comrade, but slightly older and with bright red hair. Standing next to him are five other Naruto's, descending in age, each with different coloured hair. Red, orange, green, blue, purple, pink. The one who spoke, the red-haired one, has his fists clenched in anger. "You've never given a damn about him really, have you?" He takes a kunai from his pouch, ready to attack them. The other Naruto's just look on in varying stages of exasperation. "Well, this is where it ends! I defeat you all, and show you that I'm a better ninja than any of you will ever be!"

**A/N - This idea has been rolling around in my head for a while now so I figured I'd try to get it down into words. But I'm not the best writer, as you can see XD**

**This'll probably have quite a few more chapters. I want to explore the other sides of Naruto.**

**Please review. Feedback makes me happy.**


	2. Chapter 2

'Well,' Kakashi thinks, as the angry red-haired Naruto confronts him, 'This is a bit of a mess.'

He pulls up his hitai-ate - not because he thinks that Naruto is a threat, but because he's hoping that he might be able to figure out what this jutsu is so that he can end it. From the looks of the clones, maybe they're under some sort of henge? But Naruto is unconscious, and he doubts that even Naruto could pull that off. Although he is the number one surprising ninja, and whether or not it's possible the evidence is right in front of him.

The green Naruto - who, Kakashi realises with some amusement, is a girl - steps forward and takes Red Naruto's arm. Green Naruto is older, that much is clear; even a little older than Naruto is at the moment. Maybe around 14, then? Red Naruto is younger, looking exactly the same as Naruto when he joined Team 7, so he must be 12. Exactly the same apart from the look of pure _fury _on his face. It strikes Kakashi that he has never seen Naruto himself this angry, as when he is he goes into the nine-tails mode. He realises with relief that this means none of the clones contain kyuubi chakra; although this is just an assumption.

Green Naruto puts her hand on Red Naruto's shoulder. "It's a stupid idea to try and take on Kakashi," she admonishes. "He's a jounin, and clearly better than us. There's no way you'll win."

"Shut up!" Red Naruto growls, fists clenched. "I _hate _him! Always training Sasuke instead of us. We're ten, no, a thousand times better than that stupid Uchiha! There's no way I'll lose, not to _him_."

"There's no way you'll win," Green Naruto says again. She turns to the others. "Some help here, maybe?"

Blue Naruto just sighs and looks at the ground, shrugging. "Who cares? It's not like what I say will make any difference." Kakashi is surprised, to say the least, that this is coming from Naruto. Or from _a _Naruto. He's more than a little confused. This Naruto is younger still. Maybe 11? He looks tired, depressed. There are shadows under his dull blue eyes, which are staring at the ground.

Purple Naruto, however, is the complete opposite. "I think we can beat him," he says, and his voice is self-confident and assured . He's by far the oldest out of all of them, and he practically radiates calm. There's something about his voice that makes Kakashi instinctively believe him, and Kakashi is reminded, with a jolt, of his old sensei. They hold themselves in the same way, and there's no denying the visual similarities between the two - apart from, that is, the purple hair.

"However," Purple Naruto says, bringing Kakashi out of his reverie, "You should pick your battles wisely. This man is our sensei. What good would it do us to pick a fight with him? And you should have a bit more respect for him," he admonishes.

"Respect? Ha! What did he ever teach us, anyway? If anyone's our sensei, it's Jiraiya, not _him_."

"No, he's right," Green Naruto interrupted. "Kakashi is our sensei and it wouldn't hurt you to show a bit of respect once in a while. No matter what half-brained things you say, you can't deny that he cares about us."

"Half-brained?!" Red Naruto explodes. He starts ranting, and Kakashi turns to Sakura, who has walked up beside him. Sasuke is standing a few feet away, watching the exchange with intense interest.

"What do we do now, sensei?" Sakura asks worriedly. "Naruto's still unconscious, and it doesn't really look like they're going to help us complete this mission." Kakashi hmmed.

"We should return to Lady Tsunade for now," he said. "We're still not sure about the effects of this jutsu, and she can check over Naruto for us."

"But how are we going to-"

"SASUKE-NII-SAN!" they hear from behind them, and turn to see a little pink-haired Naruto hugging Sasuke as though he'll run off and never come back - although, going by his facial expression, he just might. Pink Naruto - and she can't be more than 5 - is clinging to Sasuke's chest, legs suspended off the ground by her hug. Sasuke has an expression that's parts surprise and sheer horror, and Kakashi wishes desperately for a camera.

"Awwwww!" Sakura squeals, and runs towards them. Kakashi begins to feel a little bit sorry for the dark-haired boy. "You're so _cute_!"

Sasuke winces at her high-pitched voice and she grabs Pink Naruto from him, wrapping her up tightly in a hug. Pink Naruto begins to wail. "No! I want Sasuke!" Sasuke, in the meanwhile, is inching away as fast as he can without it looking deliberate. "Sasuke-nii-san!" she calls. "Come back, come back!"

At the same time, Purple Naruto is restraining Red Naruto from launching himself at Kakashi, Green Naruto is talking quietly to a depressed-looking Blue Naruto and Orange Naruto is, somewhat worryingly, nowhere to be seen. In the space of five minutes they had gone from relatively calm working to absolute chaos.

Kakashi sighs. 'It looks like it's going to be a long day.'

**A/N - Chapter two :D I just have this image in my head of a little pink-haired Naruto attached to Sasuke like a limpet, and him desperately trying to detach her. **

**I'm actually really enjoying this, and I have a good idea of the characters now. So now we need some plot! (eurgh no don't say that I have to think bleurgh). **

**They'll go see Tsunade next chapter, methinks. And I need names for them. I can't keep calling them Red Naruto, Blue Naruto, etc.**

**Please review! Reviews make me happy (and they also make me write faster).**


	3. Chapter 3

Tsunade looked at the group of people in front of her.

Six Narutos (one unconscious), two mud-splattered gennin, one exasperated jounin, and an orange frog.

"What," she said, through gritted teeth, "have you done now, Naruto?"

The walk back to Konoha had been more than a little eventful. Red Naruto had eventually settled down and grumbled under his breath for the majority of the way, clenching his fists and occasionally whispering things to Blue Naruto which had caused him to burst into tears halfway back. Green Naruto and Purple Naruto had taken the lead and were talking about, from what Kakashi could gather, seizing the fire nation for their own. Kakashi pretended not to hear because he really wasn't sure how to deal with them all. Pink Naruto had continued to cling to Sasuke, much to the Uchiha's chagrin, and Sakura had reconciled herself to walking alongside them and petting her hair.

Orange Naruto had decided to make an appearance halfway back, along with a frog summon. While Kakashi had figured out, to an extent, the personalities of the others, Orange Naruto had still been a bit of a mystery.

Until the remainder of Team Seven were the targets of a particularly messy prank which involved them being submerged in some kind of mud pit (Kakashi had escaped scot free by switching out with a log, but the two gennin weren't quite as lucky). Pink Naruto had miraculously escaped from the prank mud-free, and spent the rest of the journey on Green Naruto's back, chanting, "Smelly Sasuke-nii-san! Take a shower!"

Sakura had thought this both adorable and hilarious until the same comments were directed at her.

Orange Naruto was probably the closest to the original Naruto, Kakashi had surmised. The ten year old had run off cackling until Purple Naruto had managed to haul him back, something for which Kakashi was very glad. He knew that he probably would have been the next target and he somehow doubted that Orange Naruto would fail in getting him.

And here they were in the Hokage's office. Kakashi explained the situation.

"I see," Tsunade says, thinking. "Shizune, could you please take Naruto down to the hospital?" The brown-haired medic nin was still giggling a bit, however. "Shizune!"

"Y-yes, Hokage-sama!" she blurts out, and dashes out into the hall with Naruto. As she goes down the hall they can hear her laughing manically.

"Now, what should I do with all of you?"

Green Naruto steps forwards. "Actually, we have a preposition for you." Kakashi turns to her, confused. They hadn't said anything about a...

"To put it simply, we want the role of Hokage," Purple Naruto says. "We discussed it at length on the way back to the village, and we feel that we could rule this village more effectively than anyone else."

"After all," Green Naruto says, "You've been absent from the village for a long time, Tsunade-sama. As someone who has grown up in the poorer areas of the village, I feel that I have a better grasp of the village as a whole. And it is vital that this happens as soon as possible, because we need to gain control of the Fire Nation."

Tsunade roars with laughter at this. "And what makes you think that I'll just hand over the position to you?"

"Well, it'll give you more time to gamble, won't it?" Green Naruto says, appealing to Tsunade's weak spot. "And drink, as well. Shizune will never let you do those things so long as you're hokage. And think about how much paperwork you have to do at the moment. With six of us, we could get things down a lot faster and a lot more effectively."

"Besides," Red Naruto cuts in. "You're really old now, _Baa-chan_." He sneers at her. "You'll never-"

"Quiet!" Tsunade roars, and she punches Red Naruto. He crashes through the (closed) door and slumps against the corridor wall, unconscious. Kakashi sighs. 'Well, he had it coming,' he thinks to himself. Green and Purple Naruto sigh, their plan effectively ruined by themselves. Tsunade would never listen to them now.

"That's better," Tsunade says, smirking. "I always thought on Naruto was more than enough." She turns to Sasuke and Sakura. "You two can go get cleaned off now."

She watches them as they leave, and then turns to Kakashi. "Have you figured out how the jutsu works, yet?"

Kakashi shakes his head. "It seems like an incredibly advanced form of the kage bunshin jutsu," he explains. "Although going by the fact that Red Naruto hasn't disappeared, they are either far more resilient to attacks or they are literal clones." Tsunade pales a little at this, imagining the trouble that six _real _Naruto's could cause. "I can't copy the technique unless I have my sharingan activated as he does the seals, and I'm not sure that I would want to copy it, anyway. It's plausible that he accidentally split his soul into six parts when he sneezed - although God knows how - and those parts of his soul were fused into a clone each. That would explain the extremely different personalities of them all." He glances towards the five remaining 'clones', who are talking quietly to each other, and resolves to keep an eye on them. Especially Orange Naruto, who is grinning again.

"So each of those represents a part of Naruto's personality?" Tsunade muses. Pink Naruto, who cried briefly when Sasuke left the room, is now clinging to Green Naruto. "Very well. I'm going to contact Jiraiya and ask him to come back to the village. He might be able to help us out with this. Until then, I'm leaving you in charge of Naruto. All six of them." Kakashi's eye widens at this, but Tsunade cuts off his protest before it can begin. "Consider this part of your role as his sensei."

Kakashi resigns himself to this fate. "Yes, hokage-sama."

"Right, I'm going to check on the _real _Naruto. Shizune should have checked him over by now." She smirks at him. "Good luck."

She walks out of the office, closing the door behind her (although there's not much point, as there's a Naruto-shaped hole in it anyway). He looks down when he feels a tugging at his trouser leg.

"Kaka-sensei!" Pink Naruto says. "Please can we get some ramen?"

**A/N - For anyone who isn't clear what each Naruto represents (and their age):**

**Red - Naruto's anger. I figure that he has quite a bit of it, from what the Waterfall of Truth shows us (12)**

**Orange - Naruto's mischievousness side, the one that plays pranks and generally terrorises people XD (10)**

**Green - Naruto's ambition, and a slightly smarter side to him (he comes up with good strategies in the series - this side of him) (14)**

**Blue - Naruto's loneliness, sadness etc from when he was young and everyone hated him (11)**

**Purple - Naruto's self-confidence, self-assuredness (also his calmer, more reflective side) (17)**

**Pink - Naruto's love of Konoha, his need for bonds with people (5)**

**Review, people :) They make me happy.**


	4. Chapter 4

He gazes with empty eyes into an equally empty wallet. His face, once open and smiling beneath its mask, is now stricken, his eye dull with grief. For five years he had saved as much of his mission pay as he could.

In half an hour, six Naruto's had managed to eat enough ramen to successfully bankrupt him.

And Teuchi, damn him, had just kept on serving up ramen while Naruto consumed enough to no doubt pay for the man's rent for a year or two. His gleeful smile only added insult to injury.

Walking out of the ramen shop, Kakashi wondered what to do with the multiple Narutos now. There was no way in _hell _that he was leaving them to their own devices. The village would be completely destroyed by the end of the day; the villagers would all be terrified out of their wits and the hokage would skin him alive.

He isn't in the mood for babysitting, though. Maybe he could leave them with their friends?

"Hey, Naruto," Kakashi says, liking the sound of this idea. It's slightly disconcerting to see six pairs of eyes all turn to him at once. He eye-smiles at them, hoping to get them on his good side (Red Naruto just glares at him). "How about you spend the rest of the day with the other rookie nine and Gai's team? I have some business to attend to."

He doesn't expect the response he gets, though, from one of the quietest Naruto's so far.

"You don't give a damn about us, do you," Blue Naruto says flatly. It isn't a question, it's a statement. "You're just finding excuses to dump us with someone else. Well, I don't know what I expected." A bone-weary sigh follows this. He turns to the others. "It's clear that we're not wanted here. Let's go."

'Well,' Kakashi thinks. 'Way to make me feel guilty.' He can't see a plausible way out of this. He doubts they're just going to accept him leaving them with someone else sitting down, but he can already feel the beginnings of a headache.

It is with no small amount of relief that he spots Gai across the street. If he can't get them to go willingly, maybe he can scare them away?

"Aha!" he yells, and then physically cringes at the loudness of his own voice. He has now successfully captured the bewildered gazes of the whole street. "Maito Gai, my eternal rival! Let us prove our youthfulness with another challenge!"

'I've lost it,' he thinks, as what seems like the whole population of the village have gathered round to gape at him. 'I've finally cracked.'

In her tower, Tsunade hears Kakashi's outburst and automatically assembles an ANBU squad, ordering them to intervene if necessary. She shudders at the thought of what a mentally-unstable Kakashi could achieve.

For a moment, the whole village is silent; Kakashi wonders if he has broken some universal law that rules against this. He immediately begins to question his own sanity. He has no more explanation for this than anyone else does. What had made him come up with a plan like this? Could it be...that Gai was beginning to rub off on him? His face drains of colour at this. What would happen next? Would he don the green spandex suit? Would he be forced by _his own mind _to wear those monstrosities that are Gai's legwarmers?

He sways, and almost collapses. Would he-

He shakes himself. No. He could never, _ever_, bring himself to get that hair cut.

"Of course!" Gai bellows back, saving Kakashi from his mental panic. "What do you propose we do, my youthful friend!?"

Kakashi shudders and then looks at the faces of the Narutos. Five identical faces of sheer horror. Perfect. He steels himself. He can do this.

"Is it not your turn to choose our next challenge!?"

Behind him, his charges notice Neji, Lee, and Tenten. Caught between two faces of insanity or insanity's pupils, the choice is obvious.

They run for their lives.

-/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/ \-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\/\-/-\/-\/\-/\-/-\/

It isn't until a short while after, when Kakashi and Gai are racing each other up the hokage monument (without using chakra! what insanity is this?!) that Kakashi realizes with a jolt that he had only seen five horrified faces.

Five.

There had been a distinct lack of orange hair.

Gai has to triple his speed to keep up with the silver-haired jounin.

**A/N - For some reason this chapter really didn't want to work, so I've cut it short. Gai's team will be meeting the colourful Narutos in the next chapter.**

**As for Kakashi's behaviour...well, I'd say the stress of having to watch 6 Narutos and the desperation to get rid of them would cause even him to lose his cool.**

**Please review! *shakes tin***


	5. Chapter 5

"I dunno," Tenten says sceptically. "I mean, I know Naruto's dumb, but even he couldn't mess up a jutsu quite like this, could he?"

Neji snorts with derision. "I think we've all learnt by now that Naruto's stupidity knows no bounds."

"Regardless," Purple Naruto says, hand firmly clamped over Red Naruto's mouth, who is trying to launch himself at Neji, "He...we still managed it somehow. What we really want is your help."

Red Naruto wrenches himself from the grasp at this, eyeing Neji with no small amount of derision. "Oh please! Have some pride, at least! Why are you asking this jerk for help?" He crosses his two index fingers over his forehead in a mock imitation of the Caged Bird seal Neji so despises. "He's even more stupid then us! Always going on about fate. What, do you think it's your _destiny _to be so-"

"You know _nothing _about that seal," Neji almost growls. "Trash like yourself shouldn't make so many presumptions about lifestyles so different to yours."

"And a hypocrite, too!" Red Naruto crows triumphantly. "How many presumptions did you make about my life when we were fighting, without ever having met me? And who won?"

"All of this fighting is most unyouthful," Lee says. Red Naruto turns to yell at him, but Blue Naruto stops him.

"He's right, you know. What's even the point of bothering them? They clearly don't give a damn."

"We do care," Tenten says, but is shot a baleful look from Blue Naruto.

"The only vaguely remarkable thing about you was your vow to never give up. But I guess you even fail at that."

"That's IT!" Red Naruto launches himself at the Hyuuga in fury, but is grabbed by Green Naruto at the last moment.

"We're sorry," she apologizes, but it doesn't match the look in her eyes. "He just has a lot of latent rage. Anyway, we don't care about what's happened so far. We actually do need to ask a favour."

Neji scoffs. "Why would I help you?"

"Because later on down the line, we may find a way to get rid of your Caged Bird seal."

"That's impossible."

"For now." Green Naruto eyes him carefully, choosing her next words to make the most impact as she can. "Our goal is to become hokage, is it not? At that point, we will be in a higher position than the clan heads." A pause. "Including your uncle. As much power as he has, he couldn't go against a direct order to remove the seal, or at least look into how such a thing can be done."

"It's not like we're going to ever become hokage anyway. So don't bother." Blue Naruto scuffs at the ground, then looks defiantly at his now glaring counterparts. "What? It's true, and you all know it. The villagers will never accept _us_, of all people, to lead them." He looks on apathetically as Red Naruto grabs him by the collar.

"You know, sometimes I just _really_ want to punch you," he snarls. "Quit the sob story, you crybaby. If I were you, I would-"

"Regardless," Green Naruto interrupts, though she just keeps talking when they don't shut up. "Whether we can or not remains to be seen. And we're not asking much, anyway. We just want you to use your Byukagan to look at our chakra networks. Although we shouldn't be distinguishable from the real Naruto in the first place, you should be able to tell if there are any...inconsistencies, shouldn't you?"

"Inconsistencies?" Tenten questions.

"Like the one you saw in the Chunnin exam," Green Naruto explains, not taking her eyes off of Neji.

"If I do so, will you explain it to me?" he asks in retaliation.

"No," Purple Naruto cuts in before Green Naruto can answer. He turns to her. "Whether we wanted to or not, we're not allowed. And think about the original Naruto before you make choices like."

"Then I won't help," Neji retorts, turning away from them.

"How childish," Red Naruto mutters, breaking his conversation with Blue Naruto for a moment. "You'd think that someone who thinks so highly of himself would at least be able to behave like an adult."

"Maybe Hinata will help you," Tenten suggests, and then winces when Neji turns to glare at her.

As the Naruto's leave to go and find the other Hyuuga, Tenten shoots a glance at Lee. "You were being pretty quiet, Lee. Is something wrong?"

He pauses, and looks at the leaving Naruto's backs. "I don't understand, Tenten," he admits, finally. "They said that they all make up parts of Naruto's personality, didn't they? But, I am not so sure that that's true."

"Why not?"

"None of them looked very happy, did they? But Naruto is more cheerful than that."

Tenten thinks for a moment, her expression concentrated. "Well, they did say that there were six of them, but only five of them were there. Maybe the more cheerful part of him is missing."

Across the other side of the village, a young boy muffles a sneeze as he tries to remain silent, hidden in the alley he's stated out as his base of operations. 'Someone must be talking about me,' he thinks, and then turns his attention to the stacks of paper-bombs in front of him. All of a sudden, he grins maniacally. "Soon, _everyone _will be!" he exclaims, forgetting about stealth.

A few shoppers give the alley an odd look and a wide berth, but no one is really surprised. It's a ninja village, after all. Weird things have a tendency of happening extremely often. Why, barely minutes ago they had seen two blurs dashing straight up the side of the mountain...

**A/N - Well. This chapter kinda sucks, I guess. It took so long to write because I realised that I had no idea whatsoever about how Team Gai would react to the Narutos. I know I made Neji way too much of a jerk, but my sister had started watching Naruto and won't shut up about him, so it's possibly just frustration at that XD**

**Next chapter should be better, as I have an idea again!**

**Please review! Especially if you have a suggestion. Reviews are a great motivator though, so, you know...*shakes tin hopefully***


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